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DIALYSIS A USER-FRIENDLY DESTINATION FOR KIDNEY PATIENTS Every other year, kidney patients undergoing blood dialysis at Liège University Hospital take their vacation in Irakleio. They don’t choose it just because of the beautiful beaches, the amazing sights and the Mediterranean cuisine. After all, they couldn’t enjoy any of these if a hemodialysis unit didn’t operate there. Every two days, these tourists visit the local unit for blood dialysis, a process necessary to keep them alive. In Greece, hemodialysis tourists began appearing a few years after the first private Greek hemodialysis unit opened in a Cretan hospital in 2000. Nowadays, there are 62 active private units in the country. With specifications meeting European standards, they are ISO 9000 and 9001 certified, which ensures quality. Over the past 15 years, these units have attracted more than 20,000 foreign kidney patients; English, Dutch, Germans, Danes, Swedes, Italians and Belgians, as well as a few Americans and Australians. They prefer the Greek sun and the cheaper prices that Greece offers them over its main competitors, Spain and Turkey. Some come for a few days, others arrive during the off-season and remain for roughly five to six months. They often stay in popular tourist cities and islands, within or near the hemodialysis units. Using their accommodation as a base, they take short cruises and trips. Crete, Santorini, Rhodes, Kalamata and Meteora have all invested heavily in hemodialysis units, becoming key players in the medical tourism industry. “What did you do to her that improved her condition so
much?” asks a Swiss doctor about his patient who returned home in much better shape after her trip to Irakleio. “The difference wasn’t in the dialysis method; the standards are the same as those followed elsewhere in Europe. It was the Greek climate, the good food, the sun and the sea that changed the mental well-being of this kidney patient,” says Nick Stathoglou, General Manager of MESOGEIOS Dialysis Centers, a medical group that, apart from its facilities in Crete, also has units in Athens, Kalamata, Halkida and Serres. In just 17 years, these centers have received more than 9,000 patients, most of them traveling with chaperones. For the most part, these private Greek hemodialysis units offer advanced medical services and, in addition to nephrologists, are also staffed with specialists such as cardiologists, pulmonologists and urologists; many also collaborate with social workers, psychologists and nutritionists. The units are usually linked to large public hospitals and are equipped with modern medical facilities in attractive surroundings. Some of them remind you more of hotels than clinics, with libraries as well as dialysis suites. On the other hand, if patients ask about sightseeing tours or other organized activities, they might be disappointed in the options on offer. There’s still a lot of room for improvement in creating medical tourism packages. However, most units are happy to handle simpler logistical matters such as transfers and accommodation for foreign patients. They also offer friendly prices to their patients’ chaperones.
Information courtesy of Nick Stathoglou, General Manager of the MESOGEIOS Dialysis Centers Group. 128
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